Monday, December 22, 2008

I'm rapidly drawing near to the point where I'll have enough of Wrath's various currencies to buy my very first heirloom items. The quirk of these items being from a currency, rather than a typical reputation, is that I have to pick one item to purchase first. The extra special quirk is that which items my alts will need depends on which alts I intent to play.

Heroic Badges versus Stone Keeper ShardsThe Wintergrasp-related [Stone Keeper's Shard] is used for a variety of PVP-related enchants, meta gems, and jewelcrafting recipes, none of which I'm making a high priority of right now. As a result, I'm really free to use these guys almost exclusively on heirloom items without feeling like I'm passing up the chance to help out my main. (Don't cry for Greenwiz, he's earning a good 8K honor per day in Wintergrasp and is well on his way to his third epic quality PVP reward item, and that's BEFORE they add in the rumored Wintergrasp mark rewards.)

The only bad news is that these things have PVP stats, with a focus on stamina and resilience. If, at some point down the road, I ended up with an excess of [Emblem of Heroism], I might regret spending shards now on an item I would prefer to replace with its PVE equivalent. I'm not sure how likely this is to happen, though - my main remains my favorite character and there are almost no heirloom items I would consider equipping on him.

(The exception is the [Discerning Eye of the Beast], which would actually be a decent upgrade in the short term, and could be passed down to my caster alts, and/or to my Pally for a healing set piece or somesuch. If my caster alts more of a priority, this item would probably top my wishlist. On paper, the [Swift Hand of Justice] can be equipped and used by ANY class because Haste rating is now universal, but I can't see myself using that on my mage at the moment.)

The reason why I pick out those two in particular is because, with those two, you can equip any class in the game with a pair of shoulders that isn't totally irrelevant to their spec. Sure, you're losing a lot of raw armor value, and the stats won't be spent exactly how you might prefer for the melee version (the platewearers in particular would like strength) but I'll take those two debuffs in exchange for bonus exp any day of the week. The loser on the utility scale has to be the healing Pally shoulders, the [Pristine Lightforge Spaulders], which are only usable by one spec of one class, and not a spec that most players will use to level. I'm sure they're great if you're using your Pally as a low level healing twink in PVP, but otherwise that's a lot of shards to sink on a single item.

Of course, if you are getting that much milage out of them, that might make you think twice about whether you'd prefer to get something that has the stats you actually want, which was why I mentioned the topic of the PVE badges up top. Of all the items on the list, I'd get probably the most use out of the leather shoulders, but I'd also be most likely to want to replace them if I ever had emblems to spare.

(The cloth ones are relatively similar (in fact, I might prefer the Wintergrasp version to the [Tattered Dreadmist Mantle], which opts to spend item budget on spirit. The big difference is that the melee leather shoulders - the [Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders] - are more universally useful than their wintergrasp counterpart because they feature hit rating, hard to get pre-Outland, and lots of attack power over Agility, useful for some classes but not others, and less attackpower.)

WeaponsIf you're planning caster alts, you want a staff, and there are cases to be made for either the Wintergrasp [Grand Staff of Jordan] (hit rating is hard to come by at low levels) or the PVE [Dignified Headmaster's Charge] (int and crit are more useful than resilience). There is a 1H mace for the healers, but there is no accompanying heirloom shield/offhand, so it would really only appeal to Holy Pallies. (I guess the other exception would be for players who want to be able to off-heal in instances as needed and don't want to be bothered to keep a current healing weapon on hand, but, again, that's a specific niche market, and you know if you fall into it.)

The melee weapons are more complicated because they really force you to sit down and figure out which classes you're actually going to play. Some questions:

- Have you been meaning to play an Enhancement Shaman? Wintergrasp's 2H weapon is a sword, which Shamen cannot equip, while the Emblem 2H weapon is an axe.

- Does your race, class (Rogues need daggers for a number of special attacks), or talent spec (weapon mastery talents for Rogues and Warriors) favor a specific type of weapon? Having a guaranteed scaling version of that weapon may be very valuable to you. (The other PVE vs PVP difference is that Wintergrasp offers a gun while the Emblem ranged weapon is a bow, so take note if you're planning a troll or a dwarf hunter.)

- Will your new alt pick up the ability to dual wield (or, for Fury Warriors, later pick up the ability to dual wield 2H weapons) down the road, changing what type of weapons your new alt wants? This may or may not influence Feral Druids as well, since Feral attack power staves (whatever they're going to be called after the changes next minipatch) aren't available pre-Outland.

One minor additional wrinkle is that you're going to have to use a pre-TBC enchant on your new toy, because the items count as level 1 (since they scale down that far) for the purposes of enchants. This isn't too bad for the melee weapons, but the old school +30 spell damage enchant for weapons is a recipe that drops in the Molten Core, which means that you may have a hard time finding anyone who HAS the recipe to enhance your new staff.

For my own charactersI think my two top choices right now are the [Sharpened Scarlet Kris] and the previously discussed Stormshroud Spaulders.

The dagger is nice because I can use it on both my rogue (Cheerydeth version 3.0) and my Hunter (who can't use exp bonus shoulders because I'm keeping him at the same level as my wife's druid, who won't have access to my account's heirloom items unless I paid to transfer a character over to her account to deliber them). It would also see potential use for a future Feral Druid, Enhancement Shaman, or Fury Warrior (the likely specs I'd go with for each of those three classes), and the rogue (and Hunter) would happily dual wield daggers if I someday got the badges for a [Balanced Heartseeker].

Despite the concern that I'd rather have the PVE leather shoulders, the fact remains that they would be usable by almost every alt I'm considering leveling. My main is a mage, I'm not a fan of the shadow priest spec, and I'd rather do Feral/Enhance over Balance/Elemental if I do a Druid or Shaman, so the cloth shoulders would really only be for my Warlock, if I ever decided to dust her off. I suppose there's nothing stopping me from getting a pair of the PVE [Polished Spaulders of Valor] if I ever find myself swimming in badges.

So that's where I sit on heirloom items at the moment. I don't know how useful this wall of text was to all of you reading this, but hopefully you either A) learned something or B) got something useful out of reading the thought process I used to evaluate them.

6 comments:

Good overview on the heirloom items available and how to prioritize what to get. I'm not far enough on my main to concentrate on getting them yet, but I'll be sure to reference back to this as I'm making those decisions. :)

Why couldn't have made this a few days earlier? I bought the plate shoulders because they'd benefit my DK and my warrior. I didn't even think to get the leather and help out my shaman as well. Or the rogue that I haven't played in a year. Or the druid that I might level with friends. At least the shards are easy enough to get.

@D: The interesting thing about the Wintergrasp shards is that you can get them just for running instances without ever setting foot in Wintergrasp. Of course, if you are strongly interested in PVP on your main, you will probably want to buy a metagem and shoulder enchant for your PVP set, but beyond that the choices are a Mammoth mount or heirlooms.

@ Herc: I didn't forget the durability.... because I didn't know about it in the first place. I don't think I ever really look at the durability line, and it never occurred to me that they might not have any. That's an extra little bonus. :)

@Klep: Sorry, I think one of your overpowered Troll racials must be immunity to my gnomish mind reading device. ;)

Seriously, if it makes you feel any better, the plate DPS shoulders are IMO the 3rd best shoulders overall. Rogues, Shamen, Hunters, and Cats all get AP for agility, so I'd argue that Hunters and Enhancement Shammies should take the armor hit for the team if you're in the market for the leather shoulders anyway (in fact, they won't even notice until level 40, the mail shoulders start out leather and upgrade when the armor does). The plate wearers, on the other hand, would much rather have strength over agility, and are looking at a significant armor decrease from plate down to leather.

I know this is an old post, but I wanted some insight and advice on this matter anyway. (Despite being a stubborn dwarf and all. :p )

I find it a lot easier to farm shards for the PvP heirloom items than the badges for the pve versions. However, guildies of mine insist that I should just keep running heroics for the badge shoulders instead of the pvp shoulders by sheer virtue of the fact that they hold additional stats that the pvp shoulders do not.

They do have a point, but I'm still torn and impatient at times. I'm also tempted to get the shard weapons and get the leather shoulders, as per your advice.

@Dallanna: Decided to post an updated version of this post, since I've got way more emblems than I ever imagined possible back in December. Feel free to holler over there if you have more questions. :)

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About Player Versus Developer

I'm what they call a "WoW Tourist" - WoW was my first MMO, and being able to set my own schedule is a dealbreaker. At any given time, I can be found ducking in and out of half a dozen different MMO's.

This blog details some of my own personal exploits, but it also focuses on a meta-gaming issue that I find very interesting - the decisions developers make on how to reward player activity, and the decisions players make in response to maximize their own rewards.